How do profound emotions like loss and grief change us?
2026-11-05 At the second Transformation Dialogue on October 28, 2026, Jelena Marković, PhD (University of Virginia), and Dr. Elena Vogman (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar) discussed how emotions can influence transformation processes at individual and social levels. The interdisciplinary discussion was moderated by Dr. Henrike Kohpeiß (Leuphana Transformation Lab).
Transformations are often accompanied or shaped by emotions. As an example, experiences of loss and alienation can form the basis of change. “People often experience change as a loss of options for action and of meaning, which is why they feel uncertainty or even grief. In many cases, a reaction to loss is adaptation,” explained Jelena Marković. She is an artist and philosopher, and her work focuses on unchosen transformative experiences and grief.
Feelings can also be the medium through which past and future are linked, for individuals as well as societies. Depending on how this relationship is cultivated and understood by society, it can foster stagnation, or it can spark transformation toward a different outcome.
Dr. Elena Vogman emphasized that times of upheaval and change can lead to feelings of alienation: “This alienation can be understood as a kind of transformative process, as people try to regain their capacity for action under changed conditions,” said the author and media historian. In her research, she examines multi-causal histories of transformation with a focus on psychoanalytic practices and their socio-historical context.
In a lively discussion with the audience, the two researchers explored how societies and individuals can deal with emotions and transform them into positive experience.
The Transformation Dialogues organized by the Leuphana Transformation Lab bring together researchers from different disciplines to examine processes of transformation. While the first Transformation Dialogue focused on the concept of transformation in contemporary discourse, the second event in the series shed light on the connection between emotions and transformative processes.